It all started in 1978 with Sugestiones olfativas at the Fundació Miró in Barcelona. Here for the first time an exhibition addressed the subject of smell from multiple points of view, although not in the visual arts.
Ernesto Ventós saw that this was what he, as an alchemist, had been seeking for some time. Albert Ràfols-Casamada, with his painting Lavanda, showed him the way. Works by various artists, at first directly commissioned, and subsequently emerging from encounters, began to configure a unique collection.
One morning, the Catalan poet Joan Brossa told Ernesto Ventós: ‘I make visual poetry and you, with your collection, make visual smell.’ Thus was born the Colección olorVISUAL.
La Copa del Nas Joan Brossa
En el estudio de Joan Brossa
Lavanda Albert Ràfols Casamada